WHITEWATER, Wis. — UW-La Crosse coach Ken Koelbl was happy with his team’s point production, but wasn’t pleased — at times — with its defense.

The end result was a 92-86 loss to UW-Whitewater on Wednesday night in a wild WIAC matchup.
“We competed well enough to have chances. We couldn’t convert on some of those key baskets when we needed them,” Koelbl said. “We played solid, but we didn’t defend. Whitewater had something to do with that.”

The Warhawks’ trio of Kori Vernon (27 points), Myles McKay (23) and Matt Goodwin (20) were tough for UW-L to stop.

“Kori Vernon was a load and we couldn’t stop him,” said Koelbl, whose team fell to 7-6 overall, 1-3 in the WIAC.

Whitewater (12-2, 4-1) could probably say the same about UW-L’s Trevor Stratton (27 points) and Andy Merklein (24 points, 9 rebounds).

“Andy Merklein, he was our driving force on offense. He hit 12 of 13 (field goals) and grabbed nine rebounds. It was a great effort on his part,” Koelbl said.

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